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NSW police have levied a penalty against an US-based online influencer and served two driving violation citations for alleged negligent driving following a large group of e-bike riders gathered on the Sydney Harbour Bridge during peak-hour traffic on Tuesday.

The Event: An Illegal Gathering

A group of around 40 people riding e-bikes and motorcycles proceeded along the bridge’s main deck, an area where bicycle riding is banned. The assembly subsequently reversed direction and rode through the city’s CBD and a nearby district.

"This had a risk of people to be injured and killed," remarked NSW police assistant commissioner David Driver on the following day.

Law enforcement said they did not immediately pursue the group out of concerns for public safety but rather found the group at Mrs Macquarie’s Chair near the city gardens, at which point they broke up.

Penalties Issued for Influencer

Later in the week, authorities announced they had issued the American online personality known as Sur Ronster, 26, with two traffic infringement notices for careless operation (with no death or previous bodily harm), with a fine of over five hundred dollars and three demerit points each, in relation to the bridge incident. They added that the investigation is ongoing.

The influencer is said to have over 3.4 million subscribers on one platform and over 1.2m on the social media app.

Influencer's Comments

The online figure spoke with a local publication recently after the incident spread rapidly on news sites and social media, saying he was sorry for giving "bike life" a negative image.

"I’ll probably take responsibility. That was among the safest gatherings I have witnessed," he said. "I am a visitor here, and I intend to abide by the rules and standards of the city. So when I decided to do a meet and greet it was not meant to include a group ride, it was just to greet people under the bridge."

"I did not know the area well, it was my fault we ended up on the bridge and I had a decision to make: whether the group rides the full length of the bridge and turns around, which is a crime. Or we turn around, essentially, before we’re on the bridge. I chose at the time to turn around."

National Debate on E-Bike Regulation

The spate of e-bikes on roads nationwide has prompted growing calls for regulation. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, commented that illegal ebikes were a "complete hazard on the road."

"Young people have engaged in reckless acts on bikes since the invention of the early bicycle [but] the injuries that are coming into our hospital emergency departments are truly severe," he stated. "We must ensure we prevent these things entering the country [and] police are given the authority to crack down, to confiscate them, to destroy them, to destroy them."

NSW reported 226 injuries related to electric bikes in the previous year. However, in the first seven months of the following year, that number surged to 233 injuries plus four fatalities.